Wensleydale,
"Was it the case that the afore mentioned Sgt Mulley was in the defence seat when the political decision was taken to buy the Nimrod AEW3?"
I do believe that you are right. At the time it was announced that the UK could not wait for NATO to make its mind up as it needed a replacement in place ASAP, so they went with the Nimrod AEW3 as the UK component of the NATO force rather than waiting for the NATO choice. That worked out well...